Exploring Lakeview the long way around.

This Lullaby – Chapter 3

Chapter 3

Working at a place where bikini waxes are the torture of choice sounds like fun.Really?The only place more fun could quite possibly be the maternity ward of a hospital or the dentist’s surgery.Eekk, no pay could be worth that.A minister’s wife getting the smooth-all-over treatment just horrifies me on so many levels that I cannot even contemplate. The wives of ministers should be about as sexless as a tube of toothpaste, or Conan O’Brien.

I was one of those kids that had to buy their own car because it was the only way it was going to happen.I was also from one of those families where it was also clearly noted that we’d be paying for our own university learning as well.Now I can go on and on about how some people have it easy but I appreciated my 1979 Mazda 626.Dixie was beautiful until some stupid Suzuki driver ploughed into me.I get that there is worth in earning your own way, but if you are offered a nice car, take it.However if I feared my mother would use it as a bargaining chip then I too would take back the power and remove her from the situation.That being said, getting a car loan at that age seems ridiculous, get something reliable and second hand.

Remy is a “hard ass”.She’s had to be to manage her mother and as such can manage the many wax victims of her workplace.Joie Salon is in the same strip mall as a Jump Java franchise and I immediately think of Harriet from Lock and Key.Ahh Harriet you have so much soul than the ladies that Remy sees in her workplace.

The red head sounds like a doll.He wants a job in a place whose primary role is hair and the removal of? He’s either gay or in desperate need of a job.A clip on tie is funny but I am not going to judge.I still don’t know how to tie one, despite attending a private school for the last two years of my schooling where it was a requisite part of the uniform.Instead of a clip on one, I had an elastic one which was tres tragic.A year in I decided it was time to upgrade and I bought a real one, making my friend tie it so I could loosen and tighten it each day.Still not all that impressive on my part but it did make my uniform of a maroon tunic and grandma-toned tights a lot better.Red is a member of a band that has promised one another that they will get jobs that day.This completely explains the ritualistic van exit that Remy witnessed.I have a feeling this is Dexter’s band.

“So they’re not Mormons, I thought.They’re musicians, even worse.”

I am sure the Osmonds would not like to hear that!(Side note – does anyone else think that Mary Murphy on So You Think You Can Dance looks like a long lost Osmond sibling?)Red, who is a smiler and a charmer, comes out with a beauty after revealing he plays drums-

“You know they always put the red headed guy in the back.Otherwise all the ladies would be on me.”

Red has confidence that’s for sure.I wonder if it’s warranted or a little like Dexter’s bravado.Red Ringo charms Lola enough to score himself a position at a coffee place and reveals to Remy two interesting facts.One – Dexter is talking about her a lot and two- he likes challenges.That’s great because I think she is going to be a doozy of a challenge.

Break up duty.It’s something all people have to do at some time or another with their friends, to intervene when their friend really needs to call the guy.Or when they think it’s a good idea to drive by their residence six or seven times.Or stalking them on their frist date with a new girl.Or when keying their exes car seems to be a fantastic idea.Ideas are obviously not strong when someone is in the deep, dark grip of break up grief.Lissa is grieving and her friends are there for her.

Her brother breeds lizards.I am hoping this is something Jennifer Anne can train him out of because that is just plain weird.I talk to people across the globe and record it but that is nowhere near as weird as waiting with bated breath for reptile egg breaking.The crickets alone would freak me out, their incessant chirping would drive me insane.So insane that I might consider Colin Farrell hot again.Then I learn that Chris, despite mounting pressure from his blessed girl, has refused to rid himself of his pets.I weirdly find myself admiring him for having some man parts left, for retaining something that is obviously important to his identity.

When Remy is describing her mother I saw an aging Prudie from the movie, The Jane Austen Book Club.

“She kept her hair dyed jet black now that it was greying, and wore it in a short, blunt cut with a thick fringe cut straight across.”

She definitely sounds like the creative and/or insane type.I tried the blunt fringe earlier this year, only growing it out when the hairdresser (who convinced me to have it in the first place) told me it made my face look fatter.She had me a ‘fatter’, the fringe is gone but then again I am without creativity and/or insanity too.I am beginning to wonder what Remy looks like.I don’t believe there has been a description, but it wouldn’t be the first time I had missed something.Swim team, cough cough.And upon typing the last sentence I was hit with a description, it’s like Sarah Dessen knew my mind but way back in 2001 when she wrote this.She really is magical.

We already know that Remy is attractive as she had an ongoing supply of beaux and Dexter was immediately captivated with her without knowing her.I am going with ‘guys are superficial’ as a supporting statement of my previous sentence.

“…I was struck again by how little we resembled each other: me blond and thin, her darker and more voluptuous”

I must admit, I kind of wanted to know more about her physically which makes me just as shallow as the guys I was previously mocking.I don’t currently have a mental picture for Remy, probably due to the fact that I normally don’t for the protagonists of novels.I put myself in their shoes and see the book’s events happen around me like an actor in a play.I become one with the story.

I like the reference to a picture of her father and how he looked permanently stoned. But as Remy’s mum added,

“Oh, but he had such a beautiful voice.”

My father was from the same era but unfortunately couldn’t use drugs as an excuse for the maroon bell bottomed tux he wore to my parent’s wedding.Alas he is without any discernable musical abilities or taste in fact.This is a man whose favourite CD is by Joshua Kadison (remember the song Jessie?)He is completely out of control and beyond help.

Reading the wedding preparations and mishaps was a little overwhelming but I cannot help but think that the car issue wasn’t really all that bad.I went to a wedding last week where the reverend forgot to turn up, had to be phoned and then picked up arriving at the same time as the bride.Now that was a little more stressful but Remy’s mother doesn’t seem to be made of sterner stuff despite raising two kids on her own and having four ex-husbands.You’d think this lady would be a little more life hardened.

Remy seems resigned to the fact that her mother’s marriage will flounder.I think I agree as some people get into bad patterns with the men they choose to share their lives with.However Remy’s thoughts having witness the hatching was a little depressing and defeatist –

“…I felt sorry for him already.This was a screwed up place he’d just come into.”